Advertising on Kijiji in Edmonton

[stepchuk]

I was curious to know if anyone else had any tips or tricks for me pertaining to advertising on Kijiji? I was informed last week that I could no longer post rental ads for free on their site. They advised me that as of about a year ago, anyone renting out properties as a "business", regardless of the size of their portfolio, now had to pay $29.99 per listing (I believe that 3 properties at the same time used to be the magic number.)

As most of our properties are in Alberta (Edmonton specifically), Kijiji seems to be our #1 source of online leads (Rentboard is a close second). I certainly don't mind paying $29.99 per listing, but since there are so many properties for rent in Edmonton right now, by day two I am already past page 30 which seems to be a complete waste of money. Bumping up for $4.99 doesn't seem much better either, as I achieve the same result by day three. Can anyone let me know what they are doing right now to actually make Kijiji work for them? Is it worth it to pay for a "top ad" for either a 7 or 30 day period, or am I better to use my resources on sites such as Rentboard, Rentfaster, Rentedmonton, etc?

Any insight would be very much appreciated!

 

[Matt Crowley]

Hey Chris,

I did not know that about Kijiji. I posted an ad online for free about two weeks ago in Edmonton so that is very strange. I would double check there. I think you can still post for free. I tried posting an ad for free just now and had no trouble.

For me, Top Ad is the way to go. I buy in 7 day chunks because buying 30 days is actually more expensive than buying 7 days:

• 3 day package $22.75 = $7.58/day
• 7 day package $45.50 = $6.50 / day
• 30 day package $208.00 = $6.93 / day

Seems ridiculous doesn't it?

Top Ad puts your ad into the advertising 3 or 4 ads at the top of the rentals pages. So even if your actual ad is on page >30, it is usually still going to show up on the first 3 or 4 pages due to the advertising showing up at the top of the page. These have paid off for me huge for us. I typically rent out my places in ~2 weeks. I totally agree "bump up" is a waste of money as is "urgent ad", and "homepage gallery".

RentFaster is really more purpose-built apartment focused. I don't think I will bother advertising there again. But I would advertise there if I had condos instead of suites. Craigslist is not a good source in Edmonton. I never found RentEdmonton to be very good.

 

[stepchuk]

Thanks for the info. Yes, I agree that the new Kijiji policy is very strange, and it certainly caught me completely by surprise after posting for free over the past 1o years Having said that, I totally get where they are coming from as the revenue model must be absolutely massive.

I am going to try deleting my account and posting under a new account tomorrow to see if that works, but I have a funny feeling that their software will root me out. If not, will be stuck paying the $29.99 per listing fee and will take your advice with regards to the 7 day top ad package as well. Just need to bump up my rents to accommodate for my increased advertising budget Thanks again!

 

[alaas1977]

Hey Stepchuk

This also happened to us, I sent them a kind email explaining that I was not a large company, but a small landlord. They then released me and allowed me to post as usual. I now ensure not to post more than three at a time.

Please note deleting your account won't work as they track it to the IPN number on your computer I believe. So you'll need to reset this to create a new account.

Lisa

 

[kfort]

Click expand and see all the top ads. If there's 30 & only 3 show, you're only showing up 1/10 of the time. (In addition to your original posting which as mentioned gets buried quickly)